A basic sentence is made up of a subject, a verb and an object. The subject is the person or thing that acts, the verb is the action, and the object is that which receives the action. For example, in the sentence 'John eats an apple," John is the subject, eats is the verb, and apple is the object.

Objects are further divided into those that are direct and those that are indirect. Direct objects receive the action of the verb. They answer the question, what? Or who? (e.g. what does John eat? An apple).

Indirect objects are the secondary objects affected by the action and they answer the questions: to whom? Or from whom?

Juan siempre da una manzana a su maestra

Juan always gives an apple to his teacher.

In this example the apple is still the direct object. What's been added is the indirect object, his teacher. We can check this by asking, "To whom does he give an apple?"

Indirect object pronouns are used to speak in a more concise manner. Their forms are identical to the direct object pronouns except for in the third person:

	me	me, to me
	te	you, to you
	le	him, to him/her, to her/you, to you
	nos	us, to us
	os	you all, to you all
	les	them, to them, you all, to you all

	Me dijeron las noticias.	They told me the news.
	El guía les da información a los turistas.	The guide gives information to the tourists.

As in the second example, it is common to use both an indirect object pronoun (les) and an indirect object noun (los turistas) in the same sentence. Once the meaning of the indirect object pronoun is clear the indirect object noun can be dropped.

There are some general rules for using indirect object pronouns:

1. They precede conjugated verbs and negative commands:

	Siempre me llamas en esta hora.	You always call me at this time.
	No me llames en esta hora.	Don't call me at this time (of day).

2. They can precede or follow infinitives and present participles.

	No tienes que decirle la verdad.	You don't have to tell him/her the truth.
	No le tienes que decir la verdad.	You don't have to tell him/her the truth.

3. They follow and are attached to affirmative commands.

Dile que el partido empieza a las siete.

Tell him/her that the game starts at seven.